dj3215

Finally took it upon myself to play this game after a while delaying it. For the record, I consider DA:Origins a classic and masterpiece of dark fantasy RPG. DA II was a terrible mess and Inquisition was only marginally better. I would rank DA:Veilguard as a little above DA II, but below Inquisition. The main issue is that the overall game itself was considerably dumbed down to something that would appeal to middle school age kids rather than adults. You can see this easily in the dialogues between the characters. I can't stand the positive psychology and identity affirmation pep talks between characters. This is not Oprah, it's supposed to be an epic, dark RPG. It feels that besides the pieces of lore one accumulates in the Codex, the writing team was subpar quality and the product just feels lame from a story and dialogue perspective. Contrary to Origins, don't expect to feel anything for the characters. Needless to say, despite the attempts to reuse some of the characters and settings of old (e.g., Darkspawn), the dark fantasy elements are minimal. Visuals are not bad, although bright colours are emphasized. The game really falls down when it comes to character animations, especially the faces. EA seems to have learnt nothing from the ME:Andromeda disaster. I have never seen such ridiculous facial expressions and smirks. Combat is now action-oriented with plenty of button-mashing, and gone is the tactical focus of early DA. So in a nutshell, I would say that the game is on par with other offerings from this company. Same model, same issues, same lame story and dialogues, trying to appeal to younger children.